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Murder of Crows, etc.

A flummox of questions?

Dear Word Detective: I’ve just heard a new one that I can’t find in most of the usual authorities, while it appears plainly in others: a group of crows described as a “murder of crows.” Any clues? — KT, Albuquerque, NM.

Thanks for a great question. I’m surprised that you haven’t run into “murder of crows” before — the internet is full of compilations of such collective nouns, colorful terms for groups of animals, people or things. Some of the terms collected on websites, such as “an absence of waiters” or “an attitude of teenagers,” are clearly of recent vintage, coined in tiny fits of wit by the kind of people who drive their friends and families mad with constant puns. For me, a little of this goes a long way, and eventually “a brace of orthodontists” or “a disputation of lawyers” makes me feel like I’m trapped in one of those creepy-cutesy public radio quiz shows.

But it would be mistake to tar all of these terms as simply casual inventions in pursuit of a chuckle. Of course, someone did make them up. The entire English language was “invented” in one way or another. But the truly interesting collective nouns, such as “murder of crows” or “a cete of badgers,” were coined a very long time ago, mostly in the 15th century, and far from being merely fanciful inventions, these terms were once considered the proper way to describe a group of animals. Some, such as “a pride of lions” and “a gaggle of geese,” remain in common use today after being rescued from obscurity and revived in the 19th century.

We owe our knowledge of these terms today to several lists compiled in the 15th century, the most complete being “The Book of St. Albans,” attributed to Dame Juliana Barnes, prior of a nunnery in England. But for modern readers, the best introduction to the genre is “An Exaltation of Larks” (1968) by James Lipton (best known today as host of “Inside the Actors Studio” on the Bravo cable channel). Lipton divides his book into three parts: terms found in the 15th century collections that remain in use today (such as “a host of angels” and “a string of ponies”); old terms (such as “a cast of hawks” and “a knot of toads”) that were once common but have fallen into obscurity, and, lastly, oddities from the old collections. These mostly describe people, rather than animals, from the logical “an illusion of painters” to the intriguing “a rage of maidens” (employing “rage” in the 14th century sense of “jesting, fun; riotous or wanton behavior”).

As for why we call a group of crows a “murder,” the inspiration for the term is a mystery, lost since the 15th century. As the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, “murder” may “perhaps [allude] to the crow’s traditional association with violent death, or … to its harsh and raucous cry.” Then again, since crows have recently been demonstrated to be capable of advanced reasoning and even tool-making, maybe they actually did plot a few murders back in the 15th century.

Is there a collective noun for LOONS? (a lunacy or loonacy of loons?) A friend just returned from Maine where she had seen ten or eleven loons at once and didn’t know whether it was a “flock” or something else.

@Goatscrote:
I also ended up here from Wikipedia and while I agree with you that this is not an appropriate primary source citation, I wouldn’t go so far as to take the root of bugger-all from it. This article does provide you with the sources (James Lipton’s “An Exaltation of Larks”, 1968 and Dame Juliana Barnes, “The Book of St. Albans”), which are what the wiki article should have referenced in the first place.

Thanks for an interesting write up. Just ordered “An Exaltation of Larks.”

The correct term for a group of crows is a flock. The term “Murder of Crows” is poetic at best and has only come into common usage since the book, “An Exaltation of Larks”, listed it, and various authors thought it was a clever title for mystery books and movies. No ornithologist uses the term and most crow fanciers avoid it. Far from being murderous, crows are very family oriented, and frequently show behavior that might well be considered altruistic. Check the crows.net website for more information about crows.

@Michael Westerfield: Yes, they are quite family-oriented and altruistic, aren’t they? I’ve seen a nestful of them and the female won’t let anyone near it! Like, not into it, but she considers a four-kilometer radius from her nest her territory! I seriously think crows and I have much in common–starting with our hatred and mistrust of babysitters!

Per the American Society of Crows and Ravens – or at least, per their policy of mutual support (as crows themselves are known to do), the correct term is a “Caucus of Crows.”
1. Sounds like something a crow would say;
2. Rhymes with “raucous,” and
3. Suggests a group with an agenda, perhaps secret.
It’s worthy of being a meme, so I promote its use where I can.
I’m out on an island off the NW coast, where we don’t have American crows, but rather Northwestern Crows Corvus caurinus – another name that sounds like someone asked a crow.
Although crows are despised by some as nest-robbers, their alarm calls when predators threaten are well understood by other species; songbirds indeed benefit greatly by the crow’s alert protection.

Mr. Wewsterfield clearly hasn’t researched his response above. If he did he would find that theterm Murder of crows originated in the 1400’s. Nothing to do with any modern day book……………..Have a “barrel of laughs”, folks..

Jim, please note that I stated that the term had “only come into common usage” since the publication of “An Exaltation of Larks”. I did not say that it first appeared in that book. It is an old British term which was not commonly used until it appeared in the recent popular book along with a host of poetic or archaic terms for groups of other creatures. It has been made even more popular by its use in titles of mystery books, names of music groups, etc. The fact remains that it is quite inappropriate to use to describe gatherings of these social, intelligent, and relatively peaceful birds. http://www.crows.net You could also enjoy my recent book, “The Language of Crows: The crows.net Book of the American Crow.” http://www.crows.net/crowbook.html

…the way you describe crows as “social, intelligent, and relatively peaceful” you could also be describing a serial killer on their down time…

…don’t take it so seriously, crows have had a reputation as harbingers of death, evidently for at least over 600 years that is recorded, and certainly for far longer…they kill their own, can kill cows, and are also known to hang around a dying persons vicinity, no one is questioning their intelligence…..yes they’re social, if you count a wake a social event…where there is smoke there is fire…

I have assumed that a Murder of Crows referred to their nest robbing. When a group of them move through an area in the spring they are very good at robbing baby birds from the nests. One or two distract while the other(s) get the babies.

I studies environmental science with two ornithologists and they did call it a murder of crows. Additionally, Christian and Squiggy need to lay off Jim. If either of you had actually read the article, you would have seen that it supports what he said and that Westerfield obviously did not even read it!

Hi there, I was just gonna say, corvids are actually more intelligent than dogs. (yeah cause they’re according to tests as smart as a chimpanzee) What a slap in the face to all the dog lovers. Now, I have nothing against the furry canines, but I love me my corvidae. Also, I hereby name a group of jinglepots, which is a word for stupid people: “A cacophony of jinglepots”.

I would have to see the direct data to believe that corvidae are as smart as chimpanzees. I have seen many “scientific” conclusions drawn from data that does not support such conclusions and certainly not to the standard of science.

In ancient Japan, because of the difficulty of feeding rural families, the very elderly were taken to a mountaintop in the winter where they were left to die. It was fervently hoped by the family that the elders would die of exposure before the crows got to work on them. Their departure conserved the limited food supply for the rest. One of Japan’s traditional plays “Sakurayama” is about this gruesome practice. Tokyo and Yokohama have the largest crows I’ve ever seen. They look to have bodies about 18 inches long and are armed with 3 inch beaks. They’re intelligent, brash, noisy, and fearless and the term, “Murder of Crows” fits them perfectly.

Is it true that a “congress” of baboons is an acceptable
group name used to supplant “troop?” I know that language is constantly changing, both words and definitions, but how often is “congress” used in reference to baboons?

It’s quite common for a term to apply to more than one species. For example, one can have a herd of cattle or deer or bison, etc.

However, it wasn’t until I read the works of the great author, Patrick F. McManus (Professor of English at Eastern Washington State University) that I learned the term “murder” applies not only to crows, but it also applies to wives !!

I have heard that a group of crows is also referred to as a congress. Near my house are several large pine trees. once a month of so 50 to 100 crows meet there and caw at one another for hours. At that I can see where congress came from. And once they start cawing I can hear where murder came from. It is not what they do, but we would like to do.

It made me smile to read yr comment, my son is frequently invaded by 100’s of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos in the trees outside his house and the noise is unbearable. We thought “An execution of cockatoos”, would be appropriate.

My wife and I give scraps of food to A “murder” of crows here in town. One day near here one was hit by a car and injured. The others attacked it viciously. We chased them away but the injured one flew too with the others in pursuit. This made me think about why they may be called a murder of crows. If what we saw was an example of crow behavior that could be the reason for the “murder” designation.

My contribution is less academic, more “pop culture” (though only “pop” back in the 90’s). I was curious a long time ago about one of my favorite pop music groups of the ’90s that go by the name “Counting Crows” and one of their songs which was titled, “A Murder of One”. When I heard the collective “murder” as describing a group of crows, I put 2 and 2 together (that makes a “couple” of twos, to be apropo). I admit that up until today, I thought “murder” was the correct (and current) collective, not “flock”. So today, as I was attempting to prove this to a friend, I stand corrected. Still, a great band nevertheless.

I read a caucus of crows will form from a large geographic area specifically attack an owl; their natural enemy. Certainly their intent is to “murder” the owl if possible. I am not familiar with other species so intent on such genocide, except humans of course.

This is how I found myself. A meme said attempted murder and showed two crows. I was like “What?”. So then I was told what a murder of crows is and I researched it to find the origin… which I have not yet found; just guesses.

This admittedly is farfetched, but what if “murder” is a mispronunciation of another word, like “martyr,” which, I checked, is derived from “martys,” which in the 12th century was used for “witness?” I prefer to think of crows as witnesses, rather than murderers.

Crows form into flocks to literally murder large birds of prey. A few gather, make some noise, more gather, make more noise until hundreds of crows are in a flock. They then attack hawks, eagles and owls and clear them out of the neighborhood. I live in the suburbs of Boston, and several times in my life have I see a massive group of crows ominously gather to murder their predators. To me, the name murder only makes sense because that is what large groups of crows do.

I think you’re onto something. It seems that in a number of different circumstances groups of crows kill and this was probably considered a very fascinating behavior in the days when there was less variety of human inventions and less information exchange.

It’s with a sad heart that I report that Harvey Kalmeyer has passed this evening at 5:00 PM, Saturday, April 19, 2014. A nurse and a good friend, Bill Cook, 303-489-6669, were at his side when he passed. Regards, Jay Bloomfield bloomfieldjay@hotmail.com

Very amusing to witness these fervid attempts at application of rigid logic to understanding of these terms. Were that a likely route, then there can be no understanding our youth, who daily seem to coin new words of no redeeming – or logical – value whatsoever. Personally, I enjoy the color they lend to language, and see no point in arguing over whether one “likes” one term or another, nor in insisting that each be rigidly confined etymologically. When etymology is certain, it’s interesting and frequently useful in the search for nuance in expression. When it’s not, then the variations simply exist without known reason. Duh. Speak as you wish – the informed may upon occasion understand you.
…. and kudos to the contributors of wit herein extant.

We have in our neck of the woods lots of turkey vultures, the most graceful of fowl in the air and the most competent of clean-up crew on the ground. We use two collective nouns to describe them: when in the air we call them a “swirl of vultures” and when feeding a “banquet of vultures.”